More User Reviews:

I have been intruiged by this beer,I was glad to grab a few bottles over this weekend.Poured into a imperial nonic dark chocolate brown with a toasted almond colored head atop,the dark bread (rye) really makes a big presence in the aromas,bitter chocolate is almost as big and goes well up against the sharp rye.Alot going on palate wise,big dark bread and bitter chocolate,mild fruity esters,and char round out the complex flavors.This is one damn good beer,flavorful as all get out and complex as hell.

Pretty damn dark and opaque with a dark tan head, fine bubbles which clump on the glass.

Tremendous depth to the aroma, with creamy caramel and toffee melding into fresh rye bread, pastry, and some black pepper at the end. Christmas pudding and and pumpernickel round it out. Spices enhance, but its hard to pick them out. Port-like undertones.

Very creamy, dextrinous, slick mouthfeel makes the caramel, chocolate, and dark bread flavors pop. Spicing is faint but brightens it up further. A touch of roastiness balances moreso than any hops. Dark raisin/plum flavors poke out with warmth. Carbonation is slight, letting the flavors linger on the palate longer. Could use a bit more bite, but makes for a highly drinkable beer. Alcohol warms subtly. Definitely check it out.

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 1 pint .9oz bottle into a tulip glass. The label has a list of ingredients and the abv% (7.5).

Appearance: On top of a very dark brown to black body sits a tall thick and very creamy head. The tan colored head hangs on forever and makes lots of thick sticky lacing that coast the glass.

Smell: The aroma is wonderful and inviting right from the poop of the cap. It is full of rich chocolately and dark bready maltiness with a hint of black licorice.

Taste/Palate: Not to be outdone by the aroma its medium to full body is packed with tasty chocolate like maltiness with dark roasted notes and dark bready rye malt flavors. I am also picking up some light hints of black licorice or star anise, as well as a very slight hint of caraway seed. All of this is wrapped up in pleasant mellow boozy warmth that blends right into the finish with some nice earthy hop flavor and moderate bitterness. The palate is maybe a touch light but still very enjoyable and smooth.

Notes: This porter is outstanding in my opinion and would definitely recommend it. I will also have to seek it out again as it was the last bottle at the beer store and it has not been restocked.

Drinkability: An interesting tasting beer that does not taste like any other Baltic porters I have had. This has several layers of flavor and is very complex. Very good for the style, but probably not good enough to justify me getting it again at the highish price.

The beer pours a black color with a tan head. The aroma has a lot of chocolate and roasted malt in it, as expected. The flavor is a bit different. There are still a lot of porter qualities such as the chocolate and roasted malt, but there is also a spiciness and a pumpernickel character which goes very well. The alcohol is definitely noticeable. Medium to thick mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Pours black with a half-finger light brown head. The head recedes into a wispy layer on top leaving solid lacing.

Smells of smooth roasted malts with solid amounts of spicy and bready aromas. Also present are slight amounts of dark chocolate aromas and earthy hops.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though more robust. Heavy roasted malt flavors kick things off and are joined quickly by spicy and light molasses flavors. The molasses fades quickly as moderate amounts of earthy and slightly herbal hop flavors make their way into things. Mild dark chocolate flavors come into play before fading out into a moderately bitter ending.

Mouthfeel is very good. It's got a nice thickness with grainy carbonation.

Drinkability is also very good. I finished my glass quickly and could easily have a few more.

Overall I feel as though the pumpernickel influence is larger in the tap version than in the bottle, almost as though it was dry-breaded. It reduces the nose slightly, but anyway you can find it, it is worth a shot.

500ml bottle. It's officially fall, so time to tackle the pumpkin and darker beers in earnest.

This beer pours a solid black, with very slight basal cola edges, and three pudgy fingers of puffy, densely foamy, and mildly creamy beige head, which leaves some nice layered webbed lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

The bubbles are good and plenty, the body a solid medium weight, fairly smooth, and decidedly creamy. It finishes on the sweet side, chocolatey, softly Eastern European bakery in its breadiness, and indistinct in its hoppiness.

An agreeable porter, big and brash, chocolate up the yin and the yang. What I'm not really seeing, hearing (?), smelling, and tasting, is the pumpernickel, beyond a timid rye participant in the overall malt interplay. Ah well, still good for what it is, though, and not for what I thought it might be, I suppose.

Liquid is black as night, and the head is a creamy, bubbly, tightly-wrapped tan thing...almost looks like mocha-toffee ice cream. Big tan blurbs of lace on the glass.

Aroma is next to godliness. Dark coffee, bittersweet chocolate, toffee, dark wheat bread, smoke, spices that are tough to identify but clearly at work...all mingled together in perfect measure.

This beer captures the pumpernickel vibe well enough...lays heavy on the chocolate (in a good way), and the hops lend their uniquely bitter twist to the overall taste. All found in the aroma is here on the tongue, although the spices could have been slightly louder. Smokiness and the sourness of plum lay extra layers into the taste. Bitter mineral finish, which does not mask the more savory elements of the taste that also linger a good while.

Super smooth and velvety, although not what I would call creamy. Largely because the body isn't a heavy one, but this texture comes with a terrific caress that does not leave me wanting. In fact, it's the most pleasurable aspect of this beer.

This is hardly a news flash, but Scandinavia is the place of beer renaissance right now...taking styles which the Americans have mutated and amplified from their English and Belgian origins, turning it all around and putting their own twist on it. And Beer Here -- aside from finally offering us U.S. Scandi-beer fans a brewery name we can pronounce -- have added themselves to the list of greats with this one.

Jonah's beer, opaque black with a big head. Very smoke. Mouthfeel is creamy. Sourness, it is a baltic. Good with food. Big lace. Like an RIS porter. The chocolate, the bitterness, licorice root, wanted by beers, altogether good. A must try porter. T

Dark brown liquid with a voluminous fallow head with excellent loops of lacing. It recedes slowly to a thin but festive billowy layer of foam.

Toffee, candied walnuts, and (I suppose) pumpernickel aromas, along with hints of maple syrup and a hefty dose of malty alcohol.

Light milk chocolate, hearty roast malt, and black coffee on the palate. Hops add a little tart complexity mid-palate. Spices remind me a little of gingerbread, and the licorice notes join up with the rye into the finish. A touch of sherry or even shoyu floating around in there somewhere. Strong flavors, but well balanced. There is a distinctive cooling crisp minerality that suggests they used Grimstad water...yum. Improves more and more as it warms.

Aroma: Roasty like cold black coffee. Slightly spicy, and very rye-like. In a way it's almost smokey, but I know that's just the roastiness.

Flavor: Rich, but surprisingly straightforward and not particularly complex. I get some spiciness that's reminiscent of carraway but I don't know if it is, it may just be rye. But there's no molasses, thus it doesn't quite hit the mark for "pumpernickel". It's roasty with some bittersweet chocolate, and some mild underlying fruitiness. There are no real hops to speak of, although there is some grassy character; but hops aren't really needed, and to be honest they'd just be in the way of the malt and spice. On the upside, it's well-balanced and smooth - very polished. It finishes with a quick vanishing note of sweetish malt followed by a bit of bitterness and then a quick dusting of spiciness. Some minor bitterness lingers beyond that, but it's pleasant.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied and supple. It's smooth and creamy, but there's almost too much malt there. A moderate carbonation lends a delicate tingle to the palate.

Overall: Rich, roasty, completely full bodied - a sipper to be sure! The spiciness lends it some delicate, but much needed character. I think a slight drop in the original gravity might conjour a little more magic from it, but it's fairly impressive as it is based on girth.

I was looking to try something different and was recommended this by the fine people of Oak Tree

A: Thick syrupy black with an inch and a half thick layer of tight brown head. Lacing is excellent.

S: Heavy chocolate notes followed by roast. I guess that unusual spice is pumpernickel and very pleasant.

T: Big roasty note up front that leads into a big chocolate note that leads into some breadiness and pumpernickel. All the flavors go extremely well together. The chocolate dominates a little but the finish is distinctly pumpernickel

M: Rich flavors, full bodied, milky and creamy. Everything about it is right

D: Very easy to drink, and the uniqueness of it seperates it from many beers in my opinion. Could I have this everyday, probably not, but is it an excellent porter, yes. I believe this would go great with food, just not sre what exactly. Someone ponder that for me.

Flavors are just flat out huge black coffee, black dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate syrup with undertones of bing cherries, bourbon and port.

Finish is all black espresso, bold, sugared and rich.

This is one nice porter (although tastes full on stout to me). You feel like your drinking liquid rich flavorful Russian pumpernickel with all the black molasses character that's indicative of such a bread. A real winner if you like big, bold and rich coffee/chocolate brews.

Taste is much more full than the aroma. A nice roasted malt with heavy molasses. Good chocolate accents throughout. If there are any odd "spices" in here I can't tell. It really does remind me quite a bit of Pumpernickel bread. The rye makes for a very full creamy mouthfeel, just slightly above medium body. Abv is non-existant.A really well done balanced stout or porter. Worth trying if you can.

Pours black with a small tan head.Nose shows dark chocolate, spices, vanilla and coffee. Quite an interesting mix!Very similar flavours, some soft alcohol also joins in. Quite sweet, and quite a mouthful as well.Moderate low carbonation could really be higher.

500 ml bottle. Served in a nonic pint glass, the beer pours dark brown with about a 2 inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both pretty good. Aroma is roasted malt, dark chocolate, pumpernickel bread and some caramel. The taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also some coffee and charred/burnt malt in there. The brew has a good lingering bitter roasty/burnt finish. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it's coating and creamy, and it's well carbonated. Drinkability is good, it goes down easy and it's smooth. I think it's a pretty good brew overall, I recommend it. Due to the price it's not something I'd drink all the time, but I would definitely buy this again in the future.